Once Upon A Time - Review: Killer Queen

Recap and review of Once Upon A Time - Season 2 Episode 20 - The Evil Queen:

As we near the finale, Once Upon A Time ratchets up the tension by setting up the season-ending conflict between the force of good and evil -- a conflict with more than a fair share of characters of ambiguous morality in-between. Though the show purports to be a modern take on the fairytale mythos, many classic stories of this vein have nearly as many figures shaded in gray as those in black and white. It's one of the reasons fairytales have endured for centuries, and it's the reason "The Evil Queen" succeeds. I've gone back and forth on Regina (Lana Parrilla) as a candidate for potential redemption, sometimes feeling that the show is doing a pretty good job illustrating her internal conflict. However, more often than not, the show backs off on Regina's gradual changes, opting instead to recommit to the one-time Queen as an all-out villain. Here, for the most part, Regina is completely in villain mode, which is why the rare moments in which the episode expects us to sympathize with her should fall flat. But they don't. This is because the series has done a solid job portraying Regina's desperation, to where her actions are more sad than outright contemptible. It's one of the better character-centric episodes of the season, focusing on the heroes' culpability in making Regina the villain she is -- and also the culpability of the villains in keeping her as sinister as she's been.

Credit: ABC

The episode is split into three divisions, two of which center on Regina: one in the present, and one in the Fairytale World (via flashback). In the present, Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) is forced by Greg (Ethan Embry) and Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green) to do their dirty work by forming an alliance with Regina, and then stab her in the back. However, compelled by the knowledge that he didn't succeed in killing Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), Hook sides with Regina in her plot to erase Storybrooke from the face of the Earth. This involves visiting the underground cavern where Maleficent (apparently still alive, and in a different, skeletal/ghostly form) protects the artifact Regina needs to enact her plan. The impetus for this brazen plot is Regina's discovery that David/Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and Mary Margaret/Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) have planted magic beans which they intend to use to return to the Enchanted Forest. Though she overhears the couple discussing plans to allow Regina to return with them, the allowance necessitates that Regina live out the rest of her days in Rumpelstiltskin's old cell. Of course, she's not having any of that. Unfortunately, Hook isn't having any of Regina's tricks either. After she pushes him into Maleficent's pit as a distraction, Hook manages to escape and reveals that he never intended to help Regina -- he was working with Greg and Tamara the entire time. And they have a way of stopping magic dead in its tracks: a cuff that Hook tricked Regina into wearing. Greg won't reveal what his "mission" is, but it's apparently about more than just finding his father.

Credit: ABC

Meanwhile, things aren't going much better for her in flashback. Rumpelstiltskin provides her with a shape-shifting spell that will allow her to mix amongst the subjects that loathe her. The drawback of the spell, however, is that she cannot use magic so long as the spell is in effect. With the disguise concealing her true identity, Regina goes to the local market and discovers just how truly she's hated. The townsfolk attack her in effigy, shooting darts at the heart of a straw-filled likeness of their Queen. When Regina tries to stop this, she's mistaken for the instigator of the treasonous activity, and is arrested by her own men. However, before further harm can come to her, Snow White comes to her rescue, saving what she believes to be a miller's daughter from the assault by Regina's knights. She cuts down the knights in a deft, fluid little action sequence that makes me miss the days of season one's swashbuckling Snow White. It's a welcome return to form for Ginnifer Goodwin, who seems to inhabit this side of Snow White much more naturally than the damsel interpretation. Snow spirits Regina to safety and treats her wound from the fight with the knights, who cut Regina with a dirty sword, causing a fever from infection. Snow tells Regina the story of how she was rescued from a runaway horse, as a child, by a woman who galloped to her rescue. For Snow, this proved the inherent goodness of others.

Snow later tells Regina that she believes there is goodness in the "evil queen," and that it's not too late for her to reform. Quite the opposite, actually, as Snow would openly welcome a truce with Regina. When it seems that Regina is on the verge of revealing her identity and accepting Snow White's forgiveness, they come upon the bodies of a group of peasants, all of whom have been slaughtered on the orders of the Queen. A horrified Snow White rescinds her promise of forgiveness, saying that it truly is too late for Regina, and that she'll never forgive the Queen for this terrible slaughter. Regina pleads with Snow not to give up on her, which ultimately gives away her identity. Snow draws her bow on Regina, but can't bring herself to kill her hated enemy. Regina escapes, and the blood feud continues, with Regina finally embracing her identity as "The Evil Queen." Again, the episode plays on viewers' ambivalence towards Regina, as we aren't entirely sure whether we should root for her, or actively despise her. However, this storyline does a good job of showing us the tragedy of Regina's plight. She wants to change, but her circumstances have sort of dug her into a rut to where it's pretty much too late for her. Even if she were to change, it's doubtful anyone would trust her. Especially now that she's destroyed all the magical beans in Storybrooke. Not even Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) seems too open to forgiveness, recoiling at her suggestion that they destroy Storybrooke and return to the Enchanted Forest together. And so, in the episode's saddest moment, she wipes his memory of that brief conversation, because this is what the desperation of her "love" has brought her to.

Credit: ABC

Henry, meanwhile, is busy himself. He's enacted Operation Praying Mantis with Emma (Jennifer Morrison), who suspects that Tamara has evil intentions. We get a reminder of Emma's "superpower," as Snow calls it, in which she can tell when people are lying. It's fallen to the background this season, but it makes its return here, as Emma believes that Tamara intends to expose Storybrooke to the world, owing to the fact that she possesses a list of Storybrooke residents and who they are in the Fairytale World. Emma breaks into Tamara's room, which she shares with Neal (Michael Raymond-James). The storyline is mostly here to raise the issue of Neal and Emma's chemistry, as even Henry wants them back together. However, both parties insist that this isn't in the cards -- particularly after Emma gets caught snooping, leading to an awkward blowup between the former lovers. It's hard to get invested in the idea of Neal and Emma as a potential couple when we spend so little time with them each week, but I do like the chemistry between Jennifer Morrison and Michael Raymond-James, as it does much of the legwork of making them believable as a potential pairing.

Credit: ABC

"The Evil Queen" is a strong episode for the show, bringing Regina into starker relief as both a villain and a tragic figure. Now that she's been captured by the Hook/Greg/Tamara contingent, the show is going to probably start putting a greater emphasis on Regina as a potential figure for redemption. Given the effectiveness of this episode, I'm not anywhere near as resistant to that portrayal as I once was. It should be an interesting end for the season, with only two episodes left and all the wheels still spinning.